August 2001

Greetings from Inkberry!

Both Romantic poets and medieval philosophers believed that nature was its own book, and that the healthy soul learned as much from that text as it did from the paper-and-ink variety. There’s a reason the Berkshires are home to so many writers and artists; we have access to incredible libraries of foliage.

We saw many of you at our August event, which featured Nerissa Nields and Pam Houston; there were over 150 people in the MASS MoCA’s B10 Theater — it was a tremendous success. Perhaps my favorite part was realizing that Nerissa Nields has learned enough from Pam Houston that she’s starting to write her own novel — and Pam gleefully sang backup with surprise guest Katryna Nields on “Einstein’s Daughter.” Proof positive: when we share our work, we start to trust ourselves and take risks.

Two Berkshire writers will continue the series next month, on Tuesday, September 25, 7:30 p.m., at the Main Street Stage. Multimedia artists Sandra McDowell and Paul Marino will let us in on some of their latest written work. We’re fortunate to have convinced them to take a short break from their many commitments within the Berkshire arts community to read their work. You can learn all about the upcoming reading at our website.

Speaking of commitments, we Inkberry types have been a little stretched ourselves this month. Much of it is behind-the-scenes, administrative work; we’ve been making plans for sustainable expansion. One of our goals is to grow quickly enough that we maintain our momentum, while not so quickly that we overextend our resources. Unlike Edna St. Vincent Millay’s famous candle, we’d prefer to have our ‘lovely light’ burning at just one end. Toward that end, we’re looking at expanding our staff and our volunteers.

Writer, teacher, and oral history expert Peter Rogers will be the first to join our teaching staff this fall. We’ll be offering his workshop on oral history, while Emily will lead an intensive intermediate mixed-genre workshop. Rachel will be running an introductory poetry workshop. “It is difficult,” William Carlos Williams wrote, “to get the news from poems /yet men die miserably every day /for lack /of what is found there.” Come find out what he meant.

For my part, I’ll be leading one of our book discussion groups. Some of you have asked why we charge a fee for these. The answer is that our book discussion groups are designed to be a little different from the typical pick-up book group. Each is led by a facilitator who’s very familiar with the work for that week, the writer, and its context. They’re a little like pick-up book groups, except that you get more guidance; contentre a little like discussion seminars, except that you don’t have to write papers.

It’d be great to offer two groups this coming semester, and to broaden our areas of expertise. If you’d like to volunteer to run a book group, the work you do counts as work-study time toward one of our workshops. The groups meet every other week for two hours. Also, if you think you have a good idea for a book group, send it our way. Right now I’m trying to pick a topic for mine…epic fantasy, medieval literature, graphic novels, writing about the body, nature writing…let me know what you’d like to see! If you’re interested in leading a book group (or if you’d just like to weigh in on what topic I pick), send e-mail to rachel@inkberry.org as soon as possible.

Neil Gaiman’s new novel American Gods is out on the shelves; if you like Gaiman’s work, I urge you to splurge on the hefty hardcover. Gaiman is known to many as the genius behind the World Fantasy Award-winning graphic novel series Sandman, which broke every convention of that form over its best-selling, 75-issue run. He’s possibly the master (with urban fantasist Charles DeLint) of folding erudite mythology into the gritty truth of normal lives. Gaiman oozes mythology and word-painting from every pore, and some of his best writing is in the short two-page microfiction that steps away from the main narrative. American Gods is quite possibly the best example of Gaiman’s distinctive style since Sandman itself, plus he’s created an engaging and unique cast of characters. Give it a read while you wait for Inkberry’s next semester to start.

— Sandy